PrazeitPoetry

Two favorite Middle Eastern multicultural music selections from Christmas

My husband and I have trouble finding each other Christmas gifts--so we started a tradition of buying music. It makes a fun adventure and spices up our music life since we tend to play music rather than watch television. My two favorites that I bouth are the Idan Raichel Project, a moody, lyrical song fest with touching lyrics and an unusual mix of traditional musical instruments and musicians from the middle east. It has a distinctly African rhythm and sound and enjoyable vocals. A seond selection, Desert Rose 2, features selections from a variety of artists from the same region. This collection is decidely more upbeat and danceable sound, it makes a quite fun listening experience. When we made our purchases at Silver Platters we found they had instituted an new card based discount system instead of the old coupons--they will give you credit for your old coupons.

Free Piano Lesson Newsletter Helps You Learn to Play

An ideal pastime for seniors, playing the piano can become a good way to keep your mind active, hands busy, and life filled with music. If you’d like to learn how to play, or become more proficient, the Piano lessons & piano chords web site can provide you useful information for free. The instructor Duane Shinn has a degree from Oregon State University and has taught since 1965. He also sell lessons, but his newsletter provides the first 101 lessons for free. This has to be a great deal all around.

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Seattle Symphony Delights of the Holiday Season

Sunday, my husband Bob and I got away from the house to see Seattle Symphony's Delights of the Holiday Season program. It was wonderful. All the pieces I hadn't ever heard out shone the selections from the Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky. They played all the favorite dance songs really well and the entire opera house was decorated with a Christmas tree in turquoise, gold and maroon, with some snowflakes and a wreath in the concert hall. Our two young cello soloists were top rate. Joshua Roman and Julian Schwarz were very comfortable playing the duo from Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Cello's in G minor, RV 531, PV 411. Samuel Barber's Die Natali, Choral Preludes for Christmas, Op. 37 sent me into fantasia land from the depressed big band sound at the start. Later, when the Christmas tunes were worked in, Silent Night really hit hard. See more about my Christmas favorites we play at home. Other selections by Corelli, Percy Grainger's "Molly on the Shore" and Ralph Vaughn Williams "Fantasia on Greensleeves" had a folk song feel to them that made you want to tap your toe. Downtown is decorated and gorgeous at night.

Iphigenia in Tauris presented by Seattle Opera

Tonight's presentation of Iphigenia in Tauris at the Seattle Opera was intense. This was my first viewing of this opera and I wasn't familiar with the music by Christopher Willibald Gluck which was very melodic and flowed nicely with the French libretto. After the first two acts when Nuccia Focile had us all in tears because of "poor, sad Iphigenia"'s tough life made her want to die, I couldn't help commenting that all these Halloween Opera's were especially emotional.  Then after the break, we returned to William Burden playing Pylades and Brett Polegato playing Orestes in their aria about I'll die for you my best friend. Very touching and so very beautiful to hear. This is the first opera where we've spent two hours watching people not kill, cool. The sets built jointly with New York Metropolitan Opera are gorgeous. I loved seeing Michele Losier drop in from the moon as Diana and evil old Thoas' great baritone sung by Phillip Joal. A nice evening worth seeing. I can't wait for I Puritani.

Tang Dynasty Music and Dance Troupe--Jian, China

This scene is a bit cloudy with smoke and devilish creatures. But it shows what a classy performance troupe the Tang Dynasty Music and Dance Troupe is, with really exotic and mythical works that are colorful and sound wonderful. This is from the Da Nuo, a sorceror's dance meant to expel ghosts and epidemics and elicit well-being.

We picked up the two CD disk while in China, this I would highly recommend. I don't think you can order it off the internet yet. Too bad. This group plays really lyrical music. One of the fun pieces is called the Spring Orioles Song, played by Mr. Gao Ming on a Pai Xiao, a musical instrument that looked like a cross between a Jew's Harp and Harmonica that was designed over 3000 years ago. 

Last night--Seattle Opera and Wagner's Flying Dutchmen

Bob came home from the grocery store and immediately turned on the classical radio channel--Seattle Opera was broadcasting Wagner's "Flying Dutchmen" live. I never like Opera as well without seeing the cast act out the drama, but the music was wonderful, especially Jane Egland's arias. Good chorale work too, in this piece with the shipmate's singing to the people on shore and being ignored as they sang back. You learn the meaning of lustig--merry, drinking songs. Most of the singing was by the male cast and sounded just fab. The saga of the lost sailing ship and the woman who was asked to share the captain's fate--of sailing according to what he swore "to not retreat in the face of a storm, but would continue his attempt to round the Cape of Good Hope even if it took until Judgment Day--see www.wikipedia.com for more details.

JIGU! Thunder Drums of China at Meany Theatre a treat!

JIGU! Thunder Drums of China was a real winner especially with the children. The pageantry, skill and showmanship from these musicians--drummers, percussionists and other musicians with the company keeps the interest level of even the real young. Put on by the UW World Series, JIGU started their tour in Seattle and will make their way around the country. If you get a chance to see them, they are well worth the price of a ticket. Some real standouts on the program were the "Boatmen of the Yellow River" featuring chants, drumming, chimes and some good showmanship that placed you on the river. The percussionists in "Sounds of Rolling Walnuts" and in "Dogs Chasing Ducks" had the audience well amused.  "Lady Warriors of the Yang Family" had fantastic costumes including 6 foot long feathers that waved and bounced with the drumming. All of the features were superb and many times different drummers and percussionists would find themselves soloists of the moment, all of which was handled with skill and aplomb. Nothing matches a good drum roll on a huge or large drum, you could feel the entire building vibrating (okay I exaggerate). None of the artists used any music, all the teamwork involved was well rehearsed although occasionally you'd see drummers watching their fellow drummer to keep in time. So go see fog mists, dragons, red drums, a light show and some coordinated dancing. Fun!

Andrea by Andrea Bocelli is wonderful and full of love.

Andrea by Andrea Bocelli is wonderful and full of love.

Review of: Andrea, Outdoor Living

By: Sheri F. on Judy's Book

Rating: 4 stars

Read review on Judy's Book.

Andrea by Andrea Bocelli is wonderful and full of love. His strong tenor is lovely to listen to, and showcases a well-trained operatic voice. Most of the songs were written by others, some in Italian, othes in English, but his voice really does good things for them. My favorite is Libertad. The last bonus song "Go Where Love Goes" was very familiar to me so it must get a lot of air time.

Il Divo, a pleasant collection of easy listening music by talented crooners

Il Divo, a pleasant collection of easy listening music by talented crooners

Review of: Il Divo, CDs & Music

By: Sheri F. on Judy's Book

Rating: 3 stars

Read review on Judy's Book.

This album was my introduction to Il Divo, a pleasant collection of easy listening music by talented crooners. The songs are mostly romantic and written by other song writers. The words are sung in Italian, I have to admit I like the easy way Italian flows on the ears. I chose this collection because it contains "Unchained Melody" which is always a favorite of mine. Definitely an interesting break from the usual music I listen to.

More Music at the Moore

March 2nd, Bob and I attended our first More Music, a showcase of local teenage musical talent at the Moore Theater. This was the 6th year the program was put on and we found it quite a delight. The show started with solo's from each of 9 artists/groups selected for the program. This was great fun, but what really captured the audience's delight was when the different groups started playing off each other, sometimes each fiddler/violinist playing a revolving solo on a theme, or different singers singing different parts of a song. We got to see some unusual fun too, Rob Lusk-Fauquet played his laptop. It was fun to watch, and he really got into the spirit of his music. The Spilkes, a klezmer band had highschool members that played at local functions.  Nick Dumas, a bluegrass fiddler, played with a three generational family band.  Theme for Murder, a glam metal band not only played their own music, but enjoyed the other groups too.  The vocalists, Sam Shreve, Alexa Jarvis, J'Nai Bridges and Eve Smason-Marcus all sang with well-trained voices and stylistically. Julia Winn was the sole pianist. Several of the artists were songwriters and composers. A couple guest artists DJ Scientific and Earl Maneein helped to get the cross fertilization going and played excellent soloes. The House Band, Forrest Giberson, Ryan Leyva, Michael Stegner and Alan White helped coordinate and filled in holes in the program. Its fun to see such youngster turning into real performers at such a young age.